


All the Time We've Got

by servantofclio



Series: Zoe Ryder [8]
Category: Mass Effect: Andromeda
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-08
Updated: 2017-05-08
Packaged: 2018-10-29 09:18:08
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,049
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10850997
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/servantofclio/pseuds/servantofclio
Summary: After the events on the Archon's flagship, Ryder gets some down time, and doesn't want to spend it alone.





	All the Time We've Got

**Author's Note:**

> Gracious thanks to theherocomplex for reading this over!

After they’ve cleared the archon’s flagship, for once, Zoe Ryder submits to all the scans Lexi wants to do without complaint. Nearly collapsing once she’d boarded the _Tempest_ can have that effect on a person. She’d stubbornly tried to insist that she was all right, only to have even Liam mutter, “the hell you are,” before Lexi got on the comm and demanded she report to medbay.

So she takes it all, whatever Lexi wants to do: blood tests, x-rays, the works. She inhales and exhales on command, lets Lexi scan her and stick her with assorted things, stares at the wall and tries to keep her breathing steady.

“I don’t understand it,” Lexi mutters at her scanner, drawing Zoe’s attention with a jerk.

“What? Is something wrong?”

“No,” Lexi says hastily. She takes a breath, and her expression drifts back to a professional neutral. “I don’t see any signs of permanent damage to the cardiac muscle, or the brain. I thought I detected an arrhythmia, but your heart seems to have resumed a normal rhythm. But nonetheless, your heart was stopped for several seconds. That has to be taken seriously.”

SAM puts in, “To be precise, six point...”

“Not now, SAM,” Lexi says sharply.

Zoe flinches; or maybe it’s SAM’s silence that’s the flinch. She says wearily, “It’s not SAM’s fault, Lexi.”

“SAM _stopped your heart_.”

“It was the only way out.” No matter how shaken she feels now, she’ll take it over whatever the Archon had planned for her.

Lexi shakes her head. “Still. I don’t think the Pathfinder implants were intended to function that way.”

“Dad said...” Zoe frowns, trying to piece together what she remembers and what she’s learned from SAM and her father’s files.

“Your father said what?” Lexi asks, coming to alert.

Zoe shakes her head. “I’m not sure. Something about our implants being different. His and mine, I mean.” And Zach’s, probably. Whatever Dad had intended, it could go way beyond what Pathfinder implants were supposed to do. Just one more unsettling thing on the list of things Dad had kept from her.

“Wonderful,” Lexi mutters, making a note. “I don’t suppose he indicated how different?”

Zoe shrugs.

Lexi makes another note and sighs. “I’m sorry, Ryder, I’m going to need some time to process this. Inducing cardiac arrest is not a reasonable response to a tactical dilemma.”

“There wasn’t much choice,” Zoe says, for what already feels like the thousandth time.

Lexi’s lips tighten. “I accept that, but I still need time to come to terms with this... development.”

Zoe nods. That’s fair enough. She sort of needs some time herself. The fact that she... died... isn’t the only thing bothering her, though. “The Archon injected me with something. I don’t know what it did.” She rubs the back of her neck, feeling the phantom sting.

“As best I can tell, it’s breaking down harmlessly in your bloodstream,” Lexi says, regaining some calm. “We’ll need to keep monitoring it over the next few weeks. No ill effects that I can see.”

“Okay,” Zoe says, a little relieved.

“I’m perplexed, though. You seem remarkably well, considering. Sudden cardiac arrest ordinarily has more long-term effects.”

“I don’t remember.” Zoe rubs her chest with one hand. She remembers agreeing to SAM’s plan, and waking up flat on her back on the floor. In between, there’s nothing but blurry, red-tinged memories, and a sense of panic. “But usually if someone’s heart stops, there was something wrong with their heart already, right? I wasn’t sick before.”

Lexi pauses, her brow furrowing. “That’s true. Artificially induced cardiac arrest in an otherwise healthy person could have different effects. Still.” She makes a rapid series of notes on her datapad. “I want you under observation for the next twenty-four hours, Ryder. We need to make sure this isn’t affecting you further.”

Zoe makes a face. “Does that mean I have to stay here?” The medbay beds, for some reason, are less comfortable than anything else on the ship, including Liam’s couch. She’s not sure whether it’s the beds themselves, or the ever-present hum of machinery, or what.

“I’d prefer it,” Lexi says, already bracing for resistance.

“Can’t I sleep in my own bed? It’s right around the corner.”

Lexi sighs.

“I promise to actually rest. You’ll be right here if I need anything.”

SAM says, sounding unusually subdued, “I can alert you at once if anything out of the ordinary occurs, Dr. T’Perro.”

Lexi’s mouth tightens, but she visibly hesitates. “Please?” Zoe adds, making her best attempt at puppy eyes.

Lexi looks at her for another long moment and caves. “Fine. But notify me immediately if there’s a problem, SAM, particularly any cardiac irregularity. And only light activity for the next twenty hours, please.”

“You got it,” Zoe promises without hesitation. They have a long haul back to the Nexus anyway, and a day of sitting around doing nothing sounds like exactly what she wants.

“But first...” Lexi produces a protein bar from her pocket.

Zoe eats it dutifully, and drinks the glass of water Lexi provides just as dutifully. Lexi’s very insistent on replenishing nutrients and fluids after a fight. And the truth is, if she could shut all the other stuff out of her mind, Zoe feels more or less like she does after any tough fight: sore and drained and a little shaky. Nothing weird, nothing to worry about. Her heart’s ticking away just like normal. Whatever the Archon pumped into her isn’t doing anything weird. She’s okay, just tired. That’s all.

She escapes Lexi’s clutches at last, heading into the corridor.

Liam’s there, pacing, arms crossed. He wheels around as the door opens and stops short when he sees her.

“Hey,” she says awkwardly. Touched that he’s been waiting, and a little... she’s not sure what. If she weren’t paying so much attention to what her heart is doing, she might say that her heart skips a beat. It doesn’t, but she feels a little lighter and tenser at the same time.

“Hey,” he says. “Everything check out okay?”

“Yeah. Fine. Everything seems fine.” She hesitates, trying to gauge his mood. “Something on your mind?”

Liam shakes his head. “No, just... you know.” He makes a vague gesture with his hands in her direction.

She sighs, too tired to figure things out. “Listen, I’d like to talk, but I was going to take a shower.” He’s already had his; he looks freshly scrubbed, still damp around the collar. She’s still gritty with dried sweat.

His face clears a little. “Course, go on, I’ll wait.”

“Five minutes,” she promises, heading for the shower.

Liam chuckles. “Take ten, Cora’s not going to chase you out right now.”

Normally the rule is four-minute showers for everyone except Drack (for reasons of sheer surface area) and Kallo (whose species needs more moisture per day than the rest of them). Cora’s been known to enforce this with a stopwatch on the most self-indulgent (generally Peebee, once Suvi). Tonight, with no one else using the shower, Zoe lets herself luxuriate under the hot spray a few extra minutes, letting it soak into aching muscles and wash away the sweat and grime. It doesn’t quite wash her mind clean as well, though she lets hot water run over the back of her head and neck until creepy kett labs and the Archon’s hand on her face are small, manageable things that she can shove away into a corner of her mind until she needs to think about them.

Then she towels off briskly, wraps up in a robe with the Andromeda Initiative logo on the chest, and heads back into the corridor, feeling marginally more prepared to have a serious conversation.

Per his promise, Liam’s still waiting, leaning against the wall. He straightens up when she appears.

“Hey,” Zoe says. “Everything okay?”

“’Course,” he says, a little too fast. “But... you’re okay?” He takes a step closer and touches her shoulder, hesitantly, like she might object or break or something. His eyes are earnest and serious, fixed on her face.

Zoe takes a breath and relaxes, letting go of whatever conversation she thought they were going to have. This she can handle, this... feels nice, actually, this warm regard. “I’m... yeah, I feel fine.”

“Yeah? You sure?” He tilts his head. “No dying twice in one day.”

She snorts. “Heh. No, Lexi’s been... thorough.”

“Doc always is.”

They’ve eased closer together while talking, drifting like orbital bodies. Zoe bites her lip and glances up and down the corridor, at the closed doors to the crew quarters and the kitchen and the medbay, any of which could open at any moment. “Hey, why don’t you come in?” she says, jerking her head toward the doors of her own quarters.

Liam’s eyebrows go up. For all they promised each other _serious_ a couple weeks earlier, it hasn’t changed much about what they do together. They’re still just hanging out around the routine of the ship’s schedule, no big deal, no fuss in front of the rest of the crew. He hasn’t spent the night in her quarters. “Yeah?” he says. “Sure.”

She nods and keys open her door; Liam follows.

On the other side, the windows are opaqued, and the lights automatically come up to moderate. Liam doesn’t reach for her right away, which surprises her a little. Instead he glances around, taking in the over-large quarters from desk to treadmill to bed, and says, “Wow. This is bigger than the entire crew quarters.”

“I know,” Zoe says, and decides to cut to the chase. “Listen, are you okay?”

Liam scoffs. “Me? I’m not the one whose heart stopped beating.”

“Yeah, but you were there. I’m guessing that wasn’t exactly a barrel of laughs.” She doesn’t know what it was like, but she’s watched her brother lie still and unresponsive, even breathing.

She also knows if it had been Liam’s heart stopping in front of her, she’d be a mess.

Liam makes a dismissive noise, glancing to the side; his mouth tightens, feeling flickering across his face. “Yeah, hilarious. The important thing is, you’re all right.” He says it like a question, still.

“I’m okay,” she says, hoping she’s telling the truth, and holds out her hands.

He takes them, in a firm, warm grip. “No more dying, okay?” he says, looking down at her. “Or I’ll have to report you to human resources for emotional abuse.”

Zoe’s laugh comes out as a snort. “C’mere,” she suggests, tugging.

His arms around her are almost too tight, but hell if she’s going to complain. Not now, not when she’s hugging back just as tightly, leaning into his shoulder and pressing her ear to his chest so she can hear his heartbeat.

“Hell of a day,” he says after a while, and she hears the vibration through his chest, too.

“Yeah,” she mumbles back and catches herself yawning. “I’m so tired.”

He gives her a squeeze and starts to release her. “Yeah, you probably want sleep.”

She does, but tonight her quarters seem way too big and empty. “Plenty of room for two. And I’d... rather not be alone tonight.”

She looks up as she says it, sees him startle and then soften. “Luring me into your bed, Ryder?”

She wrinkles her nose and pokes him in the ribs. “Just for sleep.”

“Sure thing,” he says, smiling now, easy and relaxed, without the lingering tension he had out in the corridor. She relaxes, too; there can’t be anything too wrong if he’s looking at her like that.

Dimming the lights and climbing into bed, she tries to remember when she last shared a bed with someone. It was probably a road trip with some friends, a few years back and a couple million light years ago. It feels different now, sliding under the covers in her usual tank top and underwear, making room for another person with broader shoulders. Keenly aware of another warm body in the bed, Zoe fidgets on the mattress, trying to find the best spot, and settles for rolling onto her side and throwing an arm across Liam’s chest.

“I’m not a cuddly sleeper,” she tells him.

“Sure you’re not,” he says, curling an arm around her.

“I’m not,” she says. “This is pre-sleep cuddling.”

“Important distinction,” he says, laughing.

“Very important,” she agrees, scowling as she leans into the warmth of his side.

She falls asleep that way anyway.

#

She can’t breathe. She can’t _breathe_. Her helmet’s shattered, she can take in air, but the gas burns her lungs, not enough oxygen, her lungs heave and quiver, already starving for what she needs —

“— der. Hey. Hey, Zoe.”

She wakes in the dark, gasping, scrabbling at the sheets. Her thoughts are rough, blurred and panicked; she jolts when something touches her arm.

“Hey. It’s just me. You’re okay.”

Recognition sets in: it’s Liam’s hand on her arm, anchoring her to the present, and Liam’s voice in her ear, calm, saying, “Whatever you’re dreaming isn’t happening now.”

She squirms, trying to free herself from the sheets. “Can’t breathe,” she wheezes.

“Yeah, you can. The air’s just fine. Come on, breathe with me, in… out…”

She inhales, sweet oxygen. Liam’s close, his chest against her back, breathing in and out, nice and steady, and gradually she falls into a matching rhythm. Once her lungs settle into it and her mind clears, she sits up, still unnerved and restless, throwing off the sheets in annoyance and wiping sweat from her face.

“This happen often?” Liam asks from the darkness behind her.

Zoe frowns into the open space in front of her, vaguely embarrassed. “Not too often. Usually I sleep fine. I talked to Lexi about it,” she adds defensively. “She said to ping her any time, even in the middle of the night. Mostly I don’t need to. It’s been a few weeks since the last time. It’s… I’m okay.”

“You can ping me too, if you want.”

She stills at how easy he makes it sound, and steals a glance over her shoulder. She can’t make out much of his face in the dark. “I’m okay. I don’t want to wake you up just because.” She doesn’t like to wake Lexi, either, although she’d done it once or twice. Other people might as well get sleep; they don’t need to put themselves out just because she has bad dreams. Sometimes she just turns a light on and talks to SAM until she’s ready to go back to bed.

“Not a problem. I think we’ve all got things that keep us up now and then. Once I woke up, middle of the night, got up and found Drack grumping around in the kitchen. Had a little midnight snack with him.”

She laughs a little and lies back down, turning over so they’re face to face. “What was it?”

“Don’t know. Something krogan. Chewy. Weird. Didn’t give me indigestion, at least.”

Zoe wrinkles her nose. “You probably got lucky.”

Liam chuckles. “Oh, no doubt.”

She reaches out, fumbling a little in the dark, and finds his shoulder. A nice safe place to leave her hand. “What’s your thing?”

“Hm?”

“That wakes you up at night.”

“Oh.” He shifts, sliding an arm around her, and she moves in closer, arms loosely around each other. “After the geth attack on the Citadel, HUSTL got called in to help C-Sec clean up the mess. Wards got shot to shit, debris everywhere, lots of people missing. Bad scene, you know? Trapped in rubble’s a bad way to go.”

She winces at the image. “Yeah. I can imagine.” She slides a hand down his back, tracing long muscles.

“And some places I recognized. I’d been around the different Wards a lot when we lived there. Couldn’t help thinking about that. Different timing, could have been me. Or someone I knew. Sometimes when I’m asleep, it is.”

“Damn,” she whispers.

“It’s all right. Didn’t really happen.”

She wonders, idly, if that’s the only nightmare. Seems like working in crisis response would have shown you a lot of things to have bad dreams about.

“You wanna talk about yours? I can make a guess, from what you said, but...”

She half-shrugs. “If you guess Habitat 7, you’ve got it. I don’t…” She swallows, too aware of her heart pounding. “It really doesn’t happen often. Probably today set it off.”

“Seems like. You’ve been through a lot of shit.” He’s gently rubbing circles into the muscle behind her shoulder blade. “Nobody expects it to just bounce off.”

“Nnnnnn. Maybe I do.” It’s easier to say in the dark, somehow. She’s got too much shit to do to sit around feeling sorry for herself. Too much depends on her for that.

“Nah, you’re not that dumb.”

She laughs, self-conscious.

“Seriously, stuff like that leaves a mark. Anyone with sense knows it.”

Zoe raises an eyebrow, even though he probably can’t see it. “So if I’m acting like almost dying shouldn’t bother me, I don’t have any sense?”

“Exactly, and I know you do.”

“Jury might be out on that yet, but thanks for the vote of confidence.” She aims a kiss that lands on his chin, rough with stubble. Liam chuckles and shifts to kiss her back properly, a long, lingering kiss. She sighs when their lips part.

“Think you can sleep now?”

“Yeah,” she says around a yawn. She might, she thinks drowsily, be turning into a cuddly sleeper after all.

  
#

The next time she wakes, it happens slowly, even languorously. Gentle light from the automated morning cycle filters through her eyelids. She stretches, lazily, still twined in the sheets. No longer wrapped around Liam, but when she cracks an eye open, she sees a headful of springy dark hair on the next pillow.

There’s too much light, actually, for the hour she usually gets up. “SAM,” she mutters.

“Yes, Zoe?” SAM replies on their private channel.

“What time is it?”

“It is 0820 standard.”

Zoe blinks and squints into the soft light. “You let me sleep late.” She’s usually up by 0700, sometimes earlier, for a morning workout and shower.

“Dr. T’Perro’s orders. You are off duty for the day.”

That’s a nice thought, though it won’t prevent her inbox from filling up with messages. “What about Liam?”

“I’m right here,” he says, muffled by the pillow. Apparently she wasn’t good at keeping her subvocalizing sub.

SAM replies so they can both hear this time. “The entire ground team from yesterday is off duty for the day, at Dr. T’Perro’s order.”

Liam, still face-planted in the pillow, gives a thumb’s-up.

“Huh.” On-duty and off-duty are a little academic when they’re in transit. There’s always stuff to do, and people usually end up pitching in during officially off-duty hours out of sheer boredom. But it’s nice to know that no one’s supposed to be looking for them right away. Except, probably, Lexi. “SAM, did you happen to tell Lexi about last night’s, um...”

“No. As your panic attack was resolved quickly, I judged it did not require Dr. T’Perro’s immediate attention.”

Okay, good. Lexi won’t be wanting to see her immediately, then. Zoe can tell her about it later. “Thanks, SAM. That’s all.”

Zoe rearranges herself on her side, one arm under her head, and pokes Liam’s bare shoulder. Having a free morning feels... nice. Weird. She’s not entirely sure what to do with it. Especially since she’s fine, really. A little stiff and sore here and there, but after sleeping in, she doesn’t have much to complain about.

Liam reacts to being poked by grumbling and rolling over to face her, eyes still shut. Zoe smiles, helplessly and fondly, and reaches out to touch his face, stroking up from jawline to cheekbone. He hums contentedly, so she keeps doing it, and brushes her thumb over the scar that slashes through his eyebrow.

She’s really ridiculously fond of his entire face.

“Hey,” she says, so she doesn’t say something too sappy. “Looks like we have a day off.”

“Yeah.” He finally opens his eyes. “Seems like we should take advantage of it.”

“What do you have in mind?” Shore leave’s definitely not on the schedule for the day.

He gives her a half-smile and leans forward to kiss her, warm and slow and deliberate.

The kiss leaves her a little breathless, but she finds enough to say, “Interesting plan. Wanna tell me more?”

Liam snickers, which is about what she deserves, and kisses her again, cupping the back of her head in one hand.

This one nearly melts her into the bedding, starting soft and growing more insistent while they pull each other closer. She puts her arm around his shoulder, fingers threaded through his hair, while his hand moves slowly down her back, lingering at her waist before cupping the curve of her rump. When she finally breaks the kiss to come up for air, Liam continues a line of kisses down her throat, along her collarbone — fuck, she hadn’t even thought of her collarbone as a possible erogenous zone, but she definitely will from here on out. Plus, his free hand has found its way under the hem of her tank top.

“You know what I think?” Liam says.

“You can think?” replies Zoe, who’s about to give up on thinking for the moment.

He blows a raspberry at the base of her neck, and she shivers and starts giggling at the same time. “Rude. And yes. I’ve been thinking it ever since that first time, you know, and this seems like a good time for it.”

“For what?”

He laughs a little and kisses her shoulder, thumb stroking the underside of her breast. “To really slow down, take my time.” Lightly, he traces a line down the back of her thigh.

Fuck. This might possibly kill her.

Okay, not _really_. “Oh,” Zoe manages, while he does something with his tongue on the side of her neck that makes her want to collapse. “You’ve been planning, huh?”

“Well, you know.” A kiss to the base of her throat, another light touch tracing up her leg. “If I had the chance.”

Hell. They’ve had sex before, usually quick and impulsive, fueled by hormones and adrenalin. Great sex, she’s had no complaints, but this? She feels like she might actually dissolve as he keeps moving, kissing her chest right at the scooped neckline of her top, then kissing her breast through the thin fabric. His hands still exploring — finding the ticklish spot right at her waist, rubbing her nipple in slow circles that make her sigh and arch into the touch.

She means to say something clever to that, but what comes out of her mouth is, “You’ve got the chance now.”

“Don’t I know it. Not wasting it, either.”

He pulls her shirt up, and she has a brief moment to think, _Oh... this is because_...

And then he applies his tongue to her breast and she pretty much stops thinking at all.

Liam’s apparently entirely serious about taking his time. He lavishes attention on her breasts, stroking her hips, thighs, everything but where she’s increasingly desperately _wanting_ him to put his hands, even when she starts squirming, in search of more sensation. She wants so badly it’s a physical ache between her thighs, and she nearly cries with relief when he finally rolls her underwear down.

But he still doesn’t touch her, even though she’s making it easy, spreading her legs and babbling something encouraging. He just plants a line of kisses arcing across the soft skin of her abdomen, and it only dawns on her what he’s up to a moment before he puts his tongue on her aching clit.

Oh _fuck yes_.

He laughs right against her skin, warm breath vibrating into her.

Apparently she said that out loud. When she looks down, panting, he manages to smirk back up at her even with his mouth occupied. His eyes crinkle, anyway, and she smiles back, breathless and giddy, and drops her head back and just lets herself be carried away. Heat, slick, soft friction and firm pressure; even the rough texture of his hair and beard on her thighs is good, wrapped up in the warm glow while she twitches and clenches the sheets in both hands and mumbles a constant stream of “yeah, good, can you, more...”

One finger, two fingers into her, pressing just right, friction inside combining with friction outside and she’s gone, crying out, all her tension releasing in a long flow of pleasure.

When she gains the ability to open her eyes again, Liam’s propped up on one elbow, leaning over her, expression caught somewhere between amazed and incredibly smug. “You should see the look on your face,” he says.

“Mmm.” She stretches, loose and relaxed. “And you look way too pleased with yourself.”

He shakes his head. “No such thing.”

She takes that moment to pounce, catching him while he’s off balance and wrestling him down onto the mattress on his side of the bed, not that he puts up much of a fight, too busy laughing as she does.

One night, and she’s already thinking of half of the bed as _his side_. That’s a thrill that warms something in her chest as she looks down at him, smiling and rumpled and gorgeously (mostly) naked. “That was a hell of a ‘good morning,’” she says.

Liam shrugs. “What can I say —”

She kisses him before he can finish that, long and slow. “After that, I might just have to keep you right here,” she adds, trying for _sultry_.

Liam’s eyebrows twitch. “Whatever you like, but I do have other skills.”

“Don’t I know it,” she says, mimicking him, right down to the accent.

His forehead wrinkles before he laughs. “I don’t sound like that.”

“You totally do.” Before he can argue any more, she kisses him again, and slides a hand into his boxers, wrapping her fingers delicately around his erection. Leaning over him, she can feel him tense when she does, his breath coming out in a gasp. She nudges her forehead against his and smirks down at him. “What were you planning for this?”

He looks thoughtful for a second before he offers a half-smile. “Lady’s choice?”

“Hmmm.” Zoe thinks it over and tightens her grip, gently, enjoying the feel of smooth, hot skin over firm flesh, and also the way he stiffens and sucks in a breath when she does. She toys with the idea of returning the favor and going down on him, but that’s not quite what she’s in the mood for today.

Instead she sits up and strips off her tank top, tossing it to one side, and strips his boxers off with a little assistance before sliding over to straddle him. “Good for you?” she asks, rocking lazily.

“In you’s always good,” he says breathlessly.

She grins, sliding, everything between them hot and slick, adjusts position to line them up right, and sinks down.

Her turn to watch his face, how his eyes squeeze shut and his jaw relaxes. She’s relaxed and satisfied in a way that says she’s not going to climax again real soon, no matter how good this feels, so it’s as much pleasure to watch his reactions as she moves, rising and falling, hips circling. It doesn’t even take long before he goes rigid, cock pulsing inside her, and then relaxes, tugging her down for a kiss.

They’re both content enough to lie together, arms around each other, warm and lazy, and this is best morning Zoe can remember for ages.

Which only makes yesterday seem more distant, but even more of a shadowy horrorshow. “You know,” she says idly, “I don’t think this is what Lexi had in mind when she said ‘light activity’ for the day.”

Liam starts laughing, shaking underneath her, making her laugh, too. “Shit. Are we going to be in trouble?”

“Don’t think so, since I’m fine,” Zoe replies. She feels a lot better than fine, in fact. More like fantastic. Lexi doesn’t need to know why. And her heart is beating along nice and steady, like it’s supposed to. “If she finds out, we can call it a stress test?”

He laughs again, and she smiles, drawing lines on his arm with her finger. In spite of herself, she’s thinking about last night. Not so much about the Archon’s ship, but about Liam hovering outside the medbay, edgy and worried. “Hey, this wasn’t just about yesterday, right?”

“’Course not,” he says, but his arms tighten around her.

“Because I’m okay,” she says, and lifts her head so she can look him in the eye. “I’m not going anywhere.”

“No, you’re not,” he says, intensely and with no humor at all. “Not if I have anything to say about it.”

Her lips tighten. “Yeah, well, don’t do anything too wild. I need you, too.”

There it is; she leans on the whole team, Cora’s discipline and Drack’s experience and Vetra’s know-how and Peebee’s brains and Jaal’s determination (plus Kallo and Gil and Suvi and Lexi, on all of them), but Liam —

_I couldn_ _’t do this without you_ , he’d said, back at Prodromos _,_ and _so what about us?_

Liam’s confidence in her has always held her up, from day one in Andromeda. She might be _able_ to do it without him, but she sure as hell wouldn’t want to.

She says it, serious, and watches his expression flicker as he takes in her meaning and nods. “Not going anywhere, either.”

“Good.” Relaxing, she kisses him again. “We made it this far together.”

“Yeah. Still in one piece.” He gives her another quick kiss. “And no, it’s not just about yesterday. I told you, I’ve been thinking this for a while.”

“Hmm.” Her eyes narrow. “Anything else you’ve been planning for a while?”

He shrugs, the corners of his mouth twitching. “Maybe.”

“You gonna let me in on the plans?”

The smile grows. “Sometime, yeah.”

She sticks out her tongue, and he kisses her on the nose. They’re both laughing by then, still entangled, warm and close. She puts everything else out of her mind; for now, they’re both okay, and have the day off, and that’s enough.


End file.
